Turn

Ask any cyclist how to take a turn, and they'll tell you:

1. Start at the outside
2. Apex at the inside
3. Exit at the outside

Like so...

I know this because I asked. In a thoroughly unscientific poll conducted via Facebook chat and napkins, I polled a bunch of friends and relatives and asked how they would drive through a turn. Not surprisingly, those with cycling experience tended to get the question right.

What flabbergasted me was that the non-cyclists were so very, very wrong. Like, opposite-of-right wrong. Inside-outside-inside wrong.

The out-in-out corner is right because it's as straight a line as possible. Sharper turns require you to slow down, so... y'know, you don't do that.

Non-cyclists answered the opposite of right, which is of course would be the equivalent of parking-lot maneuvers at any reasonable speed. There should be rolled SUVs everywhere. There should be Jeeps littering the highway shoulders like so many empty Big Gulps.

So, polls, aside, I've been watching. I've observed drivers taking gentle curves, taking turns onto side streets, and so on. People turn properly. They start outside, apex inside, and exit outside.

One of my favorite places to observe the phenomenon of Drivers Not Wildly Careening Into One Another is on the exit ramp from Route 18 to Busch Campus. 18, you see, is Central Jersey's answer to the Autobahn, and the exit is a wide 270 degree turn.

People invariably start in the center of the lane while they're on 18, like the Driver's Ed teacher said to. As the turn begins, there's a seam down the middle. When you have a tire on this seam, the car shakes a bit, because it's a pretty gnarly seam.

Drivers have three options during the turn: straddle the seam, drive to the outside of it, or drive to the inside of it. Across the board, people drive to the inside, or sometimes they straddle the seam. When they reach the straight bit at the end of the ramp, they exit to the outside.

People can't explain the proper way to drive, but they drive properly. How do you explain that?

I've been mulling over that very question for a few weeks now. Maybe it's experience. Maybe it's a vestibular thing. Maybe it's a vistibular-visual interaction thing.

Honestly, I don't know, and I don't plan to know any time soon, because there are bigger things afoot. I really just wanted to make reference to 18 being the Autobahn.

How else could I set up this picture?

Not Photoshopped